Ruth Kelly: I think I might know what the right hon. Gentleman's solution is: to revert to a situation in which, rather than being accountable to a membership board, Network Rail is more concerned with paying dividends to private shareholders, and in which Government investment, far from increasing—as it is, by £10 billion over the next five-year period—returns to a level of chronic under-investment. I would not agree with that solution, and nor would many members of the public.
	It is important that we put the episodes of Christmas and the new year into context. Today, we have the fastest-growing railway in Europe.

Tom Harris: This has been a very good-humoured debate—at least the middle of it; the beginning and end of it have been less so.
	I will come back to my prepared comments, because first I want to make it clear that mistakes have been made and Network Rail has issued an apology. Passengers have paid the price for the mistakes made and that is unacceptable, as both sides of the House accept. The hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) has said that Network Rail is a failing company. That speaks more to his wishful thinking than to the facts. Nothing would please the Conservative party more than to have Network Rail painted as the same basket case as Railtrack. It is simply not the case.
	Network Rail came to the rescue of Railtrack. When Railtrack was drowning in its own inefficiencies, and costs for the updating of the west coast main line had gone to above £20 billion with no prospect of the project finishing, it was Network Rail that came in and rescued the project, which is now delivering at a cost of £8 billion. It was Network Rail that helped push performance up by more than 10 per cent. as measured by the industry standard public performance measure. It is the outstanding engineering experience of Network Rail that is leading renewal and expansion of the rail network at Birmingham New Street, at Reading, on the west coast main line and through Thameslink.
	My hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Ms Clark) spoke about her concerns about the involvement of private industry. I do not agree with her. I do not think that the involvement of the private sector in the rail industry is a bad thing. I think that it has brought innovation and efficiencies to the rail industry. She is a solid supporter of the railways and I take seriously what she says. However, in some areas we will have to disagree. I do agree with her that passengers must get the best possible service. I have said on a number of occasions that the railways are not run for politicians or for the industry itself; they are run for passengers.
	The hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright), in a positive and emollient speech, asked Ministers to address Network Rail's failings. He might be interested to know that, on 12 November last year, the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) told  The Daily Telegraph:
	"The fat controller is still there in Whitehall—
	of all the ministerial team, I think she was probably referring to me. She continued:
	"It is a real concern that Ruth Kelly (the Transport Secretary) has more control over the industry than the days when people were eating British Rail pork pies."
	If that is a genuine concern of the Opposition Front Bench, the hon. Gentleman has to accept that that comment was made in a pejorative sense. Presumably the hon. Lady does not believe that Government involvement in the industry is a good thing, yet here we have the transport Whip, the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth, telling Ministers that they must micro-manage Network Rail.